Wednesday, April 18, 2012

The Militant Takes On SNL's 'The Californians' Skit

The Militant, ever the watchdog on all things in the mainstream media stereotyping or degrading Los Angeles or Angelenos, caught the social media buzz generated this past weekend by people on this side of the country over NBC's Saturday Night Live sketch, "The Californians," which depicts a faux soap opera about a bunch of outdated '80s-era beach-blonde surfer-talking So Cal stereotypes obsessed with driving directions involving a litany of freeways referred to by their route number, preceded by the article, "The."

Now, the Militant likes a good joke, and he knows, even though NBC is part of the great East Coast-based media hegemony which conspires to degrade us through its inaccurate media portrayal of our people, that the New York-based SNL is not just about a good laugh, but also pokes fun at their own regional quirks even more. Although every time an SNL skit comes on that involves characters talking in a thick Bwooklynesqe accent, he knows that every single joke will fly over his head and will not find anything funny about it whatsoever.

So now to "The Californians." He gets the surfer talk and the Valley talk but, dude (no pun intended), that's like three decades old already. Nobody talks like that anymore, unless they arrived in a time machine that looks like a telephone booth. And speaking of "like," they somehow kinda like glossed over that word which us Southern California locals unconsciously interject in a seemingly random manner to our colloquial speech pattern for the sake of maintaining a certain rhythmic flow to it. And what about uptalkers? Y'know, the people what make every sentence sound like a question when they talk? Everyone in So Cal knows someone who's an up talker? They weren't even considered?

The other problem with the outdated surfer/Valley talk, was that it was, like, really poorly executed. They sounded like their mouths were in pain trying to recite those lines. To the point where some of what they said was unintelligible. Apparently there was a Zankou Chicken reference in there. But after watching the skit several times, he still can't find out where it was. Oh well.

And as for the freeway directions, ha ha, The Militant gets it. It was funny, but not ha-ha funny. It just got old fast. And besides, the research was bad. San Vicente does not go to The 10. Beverly Glen does not reach Encino. The 105 does not have a Culver exit. Venice Blvd doesn't take you to Marina Del Rey all the way down (it takes you to, um, Venice?) Hanging a right on Alhambra doesn't take you to Sunset, and even if it does, it's a long way from Cahuenga.

And what was up with the maid? Was she supposed to be Latina? If so, why does she have a Swedish accent?

Was the Militant offended? No, not really. They could have pulled it off better and made it funnier, but it was just haphazardly done. The funniest part was cast member Bill Hader trying to contain his laughter.

Worst of all, the best "inside" jokes were rendered unintelligible (The Militant finally found the Zankou reference after watching it for like the 4th time). They had a chance to do something really good, even at our expense, but they just like kinda blew it, y'know?

And for a sketch called "The Californians," where does it leave the Nor Cal folks? Meh, The Militant hella don't care.

I have to disagree with you, MA. I thought the skit was hilarious. Yes, they misrepresented the entire state of California (I "hella" don't care about Norcal either), and their LA geography was totally inaccurate, but I had to laugh at their mockery of those who speak "surfer-talk." Although you are right in pointing out that these jokes are decades old, they are very much relevant. There are plenty of Angelenos, mostly on the Westside and in the wealthier parts of the Valley (read: White) that continue to embody these stereotypes. They may be dwindling in numbers, but they still exist.

[shrugs back] I waited for it a while. twice. The ad ended and the window went black and all I got was the "replay" icon staring back at me. Both times. I pushed it once after about 30 seconds just to see if it was a glitch. Same thing happened again. So I went and found it on nbc.com. The skit had its moments, but went on a while too long for my short attention span.

A Year or two ago Alec Baldwin did the same type Soap Skit about Arizona, I live in Arizona, nobody wears Cowboy hats and bolo ties, but you cant help but laugh at the absurdity of the "character "they are playing

Manifesto

A 100% Los Angeles native, the Militant Angeleno lives in a compound in an unspecified neighborhood of central Los Angeles. His life consists largely of his various adventures around the city, which are documented in this blog. The Militant is also multi-modal and is not dependent on any one mode of transportation, although he is most known for traversing the City's streets via bicycle. The Militant can be described as part-activist, part-superhero, giving the voice to the voiceless and silencing those who just plain whine too much. Partly because of his selfless motives, he prefers to refer to himself in the third person, as the first-person is too self-centered. The Militant is anonymous and goes to great lengths to protect his identity and is aided and protected by an unspecified number of operatives, who are sworn to secrecy as to his identity. Most important, the Militant's ultimate objective is not to be the Militant Angeleno, but to empower and enlighten other Angelenos, so that they may be militants in their own right. Oh yeah, Go Dodgers!

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